2015-2016 Giles Den

[giles]

Dad and I did drive to Athens for a night of beer drinking...I mean hunting. We managed a double dump walking in to hunt, lol. I spotted one on the edge of the hay field and pointed it out. I didn't have a shot, so I told dad to take a shot if he had one. Kaaaboom goes the smoke pole and all we seen was belly. Then another one stands up. I get on her....Kaaaaboom...belly. Neither one took a step, dropped them both in their tracks.

 

[giles]

I'm surprised at the lack of bucks I'm seeing as well. Fluteman and I discussed this some about his place. He believes (as do I) that everybody in the woods has a corn pile these days and it really messes with the deer. Where he's located, there's no doubt that's why he's not seeing deer and I suspect the same is going on near me. Years ago before corn became the big thing, I was drawing in 2-3 shooters every January. Haven't seen one in a couple years now. Some of that is a declining deer population, but a good bit of it is they have corn piles behind every tree any more. No since in walking all the way to mine.

The buck I killed last year during ml was full of corn. If this needs to turn into a corn pile war...these folks need to learn that I work for a fairly large grain facility. Lol

 

[finelyshedded]

Congrats to you and your dad on making two great shots! Congrats man!!!

 

[MK111]

Congrats to you both. Do you guys think the corn feeding is doing this to the deer herd? Sound off.

 

[Spencie]

I'm surprised at the lack of bucks I'm seeing as well. Fluteman and I discussed this some about his place. He believes (as do I) that everybody in the woods has a corn pile these days and it really messes with the deer. Where he's located, there's no doubt that's why he's not seeing deer and I suspect the same is going on near me. Years ago before corn became the big thing, I was drawing in 2-3 shooters every January. Haven't seen one in a couple years now. Some of that is a declining deer population, but a good bit of it is they have corn piles behind every tree any more. No since in walking all the way to mine.

You said it all right there. The game has changed so much in the past 10 years because of the abundance of corn piles. It is very effective and I'm going to have to get on the bandwagon myself. I was very successful before corn piles. Now I'm lucky to see one I want to shoot.

 

[giles]

Congrats to you both. Do you guys think the corn feeding is doing this to the deer herd? Sound off.

I can promise you that more corn is put on the ground these days by hunters, than farmers leave in the field. Combines have come a LONG way in what they leave in the fields. On top of that, I don't know a hunter that doesn't use "food" (either plots or corn piles).

 

[Mike]

I've been baiting for over a month now. Yeah, I'm trying to kill a good buck in desperation, but the Beets, corn and minerals are helping the herd along too.

 

[giles]

I'd like to add a little bit of info about the places I hunt. I hunt all private land, 4 main properties in 4 different counties. All the property owners ask that I kill a doe before a buck (one property it's in writing to do so or I won't be invited back). I am very fortunate to have the places to hunt that I do. I just wanted add this bit of information as I seen another storm brewing over herd numbers and my beliefs are not what this thread shows... So, it is what it is sometimes and I'll always do what the property owner ask the best I can. Because if I don't, they will get someone else that will. I happen to like not buying red meat.

 

[giles]

So I was just texting back and forth with "the angry giant" and it got me thinking about my hunting season last year. I left a lot of good stories out of this thread that I'm thinking about telling some.

The first one will be the rest of the story to that big old nanny I killed last year.
She had been without fawns the two years prior and I set my hopes on trying to kill her both years. The year before last I concentrated more on a buck than her and I never really got a chance at her. This year I tried some "low impact" hunting for that Gr8 8 and dedicated more towards the doe. Anyways, I told the basic story of what happened during the Sunday of youth when I dropped the doe. I seriously believe that what I had done the last time I was there is what gave me the edge.

This deer would travel this one tree line out of the thicket and then go into the field. No way to set up on her without getting busted. I came up with a plan that I was going to make it so she didn't travel that tree line anymore, but I wanted to do this without blowing her out of the area. So what I did was take a hat and layer it on the ground. This was a work hat that stunk to high hell of human odor. I believe I killed that deer because of this move…

Time to grill up some tenderloins and get another beer…I shall return with more stories. BTW, I challenge any of you guys to go back and read your season journal. It put some big smiles on my face when I just did.

 

[Bigslam51]

No tenderloins for you, Dave!

 

[finelyshedded]

Great idea Dave! Love the stinking hat detour move!

Years ago NAW featured a tall lanky big buck slayer(don't remember his name) that used some very unorthodox ways to havest some big mature giant deer. One of his hunts he watched his target deer cut across this big field which was too far away from his stand to offer him a shot. This deer was patterned and kept circumventing him so he took a pair of dirty stinking socks tied to the end of a rope and drug them across the field to divert the Bucks travel route before daylight on his way to his stand and hung them a few hundred yards up wind from his stand. A while later like clockwork his target buck came walking the same route and stopped right where the socks were drug through. His account said the deer was on high alert and was very nervous and wouldn't cross the stinking scent trail but walked away from the scent stream of the hanging socks right toward the waiting hunter and the rest is history.
The same guy often put dumbies dressed in hunter orange clothing up in tree stands where deer would eventually smell them and see them and then change their route once again leading them past his tree stand where the wind was in his favor.

Your strategy reminded me of this guy! Cool stuff!

Deer meat and a beer go great together BTW! Lol

 

[giles]

No tenderloins for you, Dave!

Yup, my fuggen wife just stopped me and told me she wanted it for her Mothers Day dinner. The really fucked up part is that she will be at my parents house in Elmore while I'll be at work here! I goes I'll share some more stories while she makes me a damn sammich.





I also want to share that I'm very thankful that I manage 6 hunters on a very solid property for wildlife. I am in charge of 210 acres of prime land. The organization sets us a deer kill quota every year and it's up to us to kill said amount of deer. This year it was 12-15 deer they wanted killed. We killed 13 total. 3 mature bucks, a few buttons and some nice doe. We have an "earn a buck" program set up for all the hunters also so we are sure to get our numbers. This property is one of those that too many deer is hurting the big picture for natural plants of Ohio….

We can't hunt using any bait, cutting any limbs, or anything that really alters anything. We also have to deal with tree hugging hikers through all of bow season, they close the trails during the gun seasons. Which is nice.

Anyways… I took more shots this year than I have since I was a kid. Turns out I had a bad scope on my shotgun…it also turns out that when shooting a crossbow, you need to make sure your limbs have clearance… I'm lucky I didn't hurt the bow and just missed the deer by 5'! Even though it was only 10 yards away, lol. I also lost a nice doe due to high water in a normally shallow creek.

That story goes something like this.
There I was, sitting in the tree pissed off because I had missed yet another deer that morning with the shotgun. So I had gone back home to get the ML and returned back in the same stand. I had this lone doe working the cedar thicket below me for hours… She never gave me a clear shot so I didn't take one for the longest time. It was fun to watch her mill around and she even bedded down a couple of times. About a half hour before dark she jumped up and ran right at me! I froze in hopes that she would stop. She did, and she was staring right at me.

We did the deer stare off for a while, you know the one…she stomps and jukes her head around like some hood rat chick. She did the fake, I'm gonna take a bit of food bullshit a couple of times too. She finally settled down and started looking behind her. My brain instantly went to looking for a buck! Heart pounding out of my chest and all. I thought for sure she was going to hear it as she was only 20 yards away.

While I was searching the woods looking for this buck she did a full 180 and all I had was a Texas heart shot. I wasn't going to take that shot but I was angry and thought about trying to blow her head OFF! But no way could I stomach another miss so I waited… Clenching my teeth hard enough that my law muscles started to hurt. I was pissed and this bitch was gonna die!

What felt like five hours later she had her head down and I was able to get the gun up 3/4 of the way. She seen or heard me and spun back around. At this point I was in full "fuck this deer" mode and I shouldered the gun. She did what most deer do and she took one bounce and stood broadside looking at me. I put it on her heart and let the smoke pole sing.

Smoke clears and she's plowing! I jump up and scream "thats what you get bitch!". She plows her way to the edge of the hill using only her back legs and I wait for her to expire. I get down 10 minutes later to go gather her up. I walk over to the spot I last seen her and she wasn't there… Mother fogger am I really pissed off now. I look over the ledge and we see each other at the same time… She starts plowing again! Son of a bitch!!! I never reloaded the gun!!!!!! So down this rock face I go to catch her before she hits the creek. I felt like Buzz Lightyear falling down this cliff side "with class".

I got to about 10' of her before she splashed into the creek. No way was I going to get into this raging creek, at the same time, no way I was going to let her get away. So I gave chase down the creek bank. I felt like someone trying to get out of Spidermans web…that shit was THICK! All I kept seeing was white belly, brown, white belly, brown tumbling down this creek. It turns out that the creek was in better shape than I am and she got away from me as I had to stop for air.

It got dark on me and I felt like I wasn't going to find her, so I went back and found all the shit I left in while chasing her. At this point I was mentally and physically destroyed. I was limping hard and bleeding from every limb. I didn't even want to go home, I knew my wife would ask and no way could I tell anyone that this happened. But I put on my big boy panties and went home. I walked in the front door and she took one look at me and said "no means no Babe"…as funny as that would normally be, she said I looked like I wanted to cry. She gave me a hug and never asked what happened… (damn, I love that woman, even if I don't get my tenderloin tonight)

The rest of the night turned into a night of me drinking beer in my garage with the lights off kind of night. I got up the next morning, grabbed my cane and went back looking for her. I never did find her. All I can figure is that her being that close, I shot just low enough to miss the heart and break both front legs.

 

[giles]

Great idea Dave! Love the stinking hat detour move!

Years ago NAW featured a tall lanky big buck slayer(don't remember his name) that used some very unorthodox ways to havest some big mature giant deer. One of his hunts he watched his target deer cut across this big field which was too far away from his stand to offer him a shot. This deer was patterned and kept circumventing him so he took a pair of dirty stinking socks tied to the end of a rope and drug them across the field to divert the Bucks travel route before daylight on his way to his stand and hung them a few hundred yards up wind from his stand. A while later like clockwork his target buck came walking the same route and stopped right where the socks were drug through. His account said the deer was on high alert and was very nervous and wouldn't cross the stinking scent trail but walked away from the scent stream of the hanging socks right toward the waiting hunter and the rest is history.
The same guy often put dumbies dressed in hunter orange clothing up in tree stands where deer would eventually smell them and see them and then change their route once again leading them past his tree stand where the wind was in his favor.

Your strategy reminded me of this guy! Cool stuff!

Deer meat and a beer go great together BTW! Lol

One of my favorite ways to hunt is hunting other hunters. I love that style of hunting! The areas I hunt are pretty high pressured and I like to use that to my advantage. People say "go deep to find the deer", I say hunt the parking lot.

 

[giles]

I learned a lot this year, I also gain a lot of respect for those hunter that go out to kill a certain deer. That takes some skill, luck, and all sorts of other good voodoo. I also learned that hunting for the rack isn't for me. It left me highly disappointed in myself. I was raised a meat hunter. Never even "buck hunted" until 3 years ago. The first tow years I just set out to kill a mature buck. I was able to do that both years. I started feeling that antler rage…then I found that shed and I was hooked. Forgot all about my roots… I passed on a mature buck on my very first hunt last year.

Everything was perfect. It was raining and the wind was in my face… I had a treelike between me and this nice mature buck. I was going to challenge myself and see how close I could get. This deer never did "it" for me as I was locked on the Gr8 8. I was able to close the distance and get him in range without him having any idea I was there.

This was also a hunt that my dad was hunting the property with me. So I snuck back out in hopes to set him up on this deer the next day. I get back up by the truck and he's in the truck…WTF old man?! So I tell him what I'd just done and he tells me I'm full of shit. I tell him I'll show him the deer and I fire up the truck. We drive down the road and sure as shit the deer is still standing in the same area. He calls me every name in the book…and it never phased me. Because I knew what I was doing, yeah right! He never said it, but I done forgot WTF hunting was all about and he seen that that day. (I've had this talk with him since)







All in all, this last season was very humbling for me as a man. I'm already looking forward to this coming season and can't wait to enjoy it. I hope to learn some more TOO.

 

[Bigslam51]

Cool stories, Dave! You should of put your arm floaties on and jumped in the creek!

 

[giles]

Mexicans only cross water one way, how would I get back across?

 

[Bigslam51]

Mexicans only cross water one way, how would I get back across?

6" of Mexican in you don't make you a Mexican, Dave.

 

[giles]

I'm had bean man! No shit, true story.

 

[finelyshedded]

Yup, my fuggen wife just stopped me and told me she wanted it for her Mothers Day dinner. The really fucked up part is that she will be at my parents house in Elmore while I'll be at work here! I goes I'll share some more stories while she makes me a damn sammich.





I also want to share that I'm very thankful that I manage 6 hunters on a very solid property for wildlife. I am in charge of 210 acres of prime land. The organization sets us a deer kill quota every year and it's up to us to kill said amount of deer. This year it was 12-15 deer they wanted killed. We killed 13 total. 3 mature bucks, a few buttons and some nice doe. We have an "earn a buck" program set up for all the hunters also so we are sure to get our numbers. This property is one of those that too many deer is hurting the big picture for natural plants of Ohio….

We can't hunt using any bait, cutting any limbs, or anything that really alters anything. We also have to deal with tree hugging hikers through all of bow season, they close the trails during the gun seasons. Which is nice.

Anyways… I took more shots this year than I have since I was a kid. Turns out I had a bad scope on my shotgun…it also turns out that when shooting a crossbow, you need to make sure your limbs have clearance… I'm lucky I didn't hurt the bow and just missed the deer by 5'! Even though it was only 10 yards away, lol. I also lost a nice doe due to high water in a normally shallow creek.

That story goes something like this.
There I was, sitting in the tree pissed off because I had missed yet another deer that morning with the shotgun. So I had gone back home to get the ML and returned back in the same stand. I had this lone doe working the cedar thicket below me for hours… She never gave me a clear shot so I didn't take one for the longest time. It was fun to watch her mill around and she even bedded down a couple of times. About a half hour before dark she jumped up and ran right at me! I froze in hopes that she would stop. She did, and she was staring right at me.

We did the deer stare off for a while, you know the one…she stomps and jukes her head around like some hood rat chick. She did the fake, I'm gonna take a bit of food bullshit a couple of times too. She finally settled down and started looking behind her. My brain instantly went to looking for a buck! Heart pounding out of my chest and all. I thought for sure she was going to hear it as she was only 20 yards away.

While I was searching the woods looking for this buck she did a full 180 and all I had was a Texas heart shot. I wasn't going to take that shot but I was angry and thought about trying to blow her head OFF! But no way could I stomach another miss so I waited… Clenching my teeth hard enough that my law muscles started to hurt. I was pissed and this bitch was gonna die!

What felt like five hours later she had her head down and I was able to get the gun up 3/4 of the way. She seen or heard me and spun back around. At this point I was in full "fuck this deer" mode and I shouldered the gun. She did what most deer do and she took one bounce and stood broadside looking at me. I put it on her heart and let the smoke pole sing.

Smoke clears and she's plowing! I jump up and scream "thats what you get bitch!". She plows her way to the edge of the hill using only her back legs and I wait for her to expire. I get down 10 minutes later to go gather her up. I walk over to the spot I last seen her and she wasn't there… Mother fogger am I really pissed off now. I look over the ledge and we see each other at the same time… She starts plowing again! Son of a bitch!!! I never reloaded the gun!!!!!! So down this rock face I go to catch her before she hits the creek. I felt like Buzz Lightyear falling down this cliff side "with class".

I got to about 10' of her before she splashed into the creek. No way was I going to get into this raging creek, at the same time, no way I was going to let her get away. So I gave chase down the creek bank. I felt like someone trying to get out of Spidermans web…that shit was THICK! All I kept seeing was white belly, brown, white belly, brown tumbling down this creek. It turns out that the creek was in better shape than I am and she got away from me as I had to stop for air.

It got dark on me and I felt like I wasn't going to find her, so I went back and found all the shit I left in while chasing her. At this point I was mentally and physically destroyed. I was limping hard and bleeding from every limb. I didn't even want to go home, I knew my wife would ask and no way could I tell anyone that this happened. But I put on my big boy panties and went home. I walked in the front door and she took one look at me and said "no means no Babe"…as funny as that would normally be, she said I looked like I wanted to cry. She gave me a hug and never asked what happened… (damn, I love that woman, even if I don't get my tenderloin tonight)

The rest of the night turned into a night of me drinking beer in my garage with the lights off kind of night. I got up the next morning, grabbed my cane and went back looking for her. I never did find her. All I can figure is that her being that close, I shot just low enough to miss the heart and break both front legs.

Finally had time to read your story Dave! Damn brother, what an agonizing day for sure! Sorry it didn't work out for you that day but you just got to pick yourself back up and keep after em, don't cha!

Sounds like you and your crew do a great job managing this property considering all the hoops you have to hop through! Great job on that bud!

I'll be looking forward to reading more of your adventures...:smiley_coolpeace:

 

[giles]

We have a lot of fun. Even dealing with hikers and such, kinda puts a challenge to hunting this place. Thanks for reading it, took my dumbass like two hours to type all that out! Lol